1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotary operation switch which allows the contact thereof to be changed over through rotation of its operation body and also relates to a multidirection input apparatus wherein a variety of contacts thereof are switched through rotation or tilting of its operation body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An example of the conventional multidirection input apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 6-150778. As described therein, a driving body is held in a housing in such a way that the driving body can be rotated and tilted. In addition, a plurality of tact switches which can be driven by the driving body are arranged in the housing. The tact switches are mounted on an insulating substrate by soldering them thereto. The tact switches used are of the horizontal and vertical types with a stem thereof oriented in the horizontal and vertical direction respectively. In the case of the horizontal type, two tact switches are arranged through portions protruding out off the circumference edge of the driving body. In the case of the vertical type, on the other hand, four tact switches are laid out beneath the driving body, being separated from each other by an angle of 90 degrees.
In the multidirection input apparatus having such a configuration, rotating an operation body, which is joined to the driving body, in the normal or reserved direction puts a pressure on any one of the horizontal-type tact switches against the protruding portion of the driving body, turning the tact switch on. Tilting the operation body in any arbitrary direction, on the other hand, selectively puts a pressure on a vertical-type tact switch which is placed in the tilting direction, turning the tact switch on. In this way, the switching operation can be accomplished not only by a tilting operation but also by a rotating operation.
In the case of the conventional multidirection input apparatus described above, however, since the horizontal-type tact switches are each used as a switch device which is actuated by the rotation of the driving body, no overstroke is resulted in after the switch has been turned on. As a result, for the operator operating the operation body, a problem of poor operation feeling exists. Such a problem is encountered not only in a multidirection input apparatus, but also in a rotary operation switch in general wherein a tact switch is actuated by rotating an operation body.
In addition, in the conventional multidirection input apparatus described above, it is necessary to mount a plurality of tact switches on an insulating substrate by soldering them thereto. On the top of that, since the horizontal-type tact switch has a large thickness (height dimension) in comparison with the vertical-type tact switch, the number of components and the number of assembly operations are increased, giving rise to a problem that it is difficult to design a thin version of the apparatus.
The present invention addresses the problems encountered in the state of the conventional technology described above. It is a first object of the present invention to provide a rotary operation switch that provides the operator with good operation feeling. It is a second object of the present invention to provide a multidirection input apparatus which readily allows the number of components and the number of assembly operations to be reduced and allows a thin version thereof to be designed.
In addition, in the case of the conventional multidirection input apparatus described above, the driving body is held in the housing by a plurality of pieces of elastic material provided on the driving body. The pieces of elastic material increase the size of the multidirection input apparatus. In order to solve this problem, a multidirection input apparatus wherein the driving body is held in the housing by utilizing an elastic force produced by each tact switch for detecting a tilt, have been proposed. In this case, however, when a tact switch for detecting a vertical movement is turned on by pressing the center of the operation body, each tact switch for detecting a tilt is also pressed by the downward movement of the operation body. As a result, a click feeling originated by the tact switch for detecting a vertical movement is inevitably weakened, giving rise to a problem that, for the operator pressing the operation body, the operation feeling is poor.
As mentioned earlier, the present invention addresses the problems encountered in the state of the conventional technology described above. To be more specific, it is another object of the present invention to provide a multidirection input apparatus that offers clear click feeling as well as good operation feeling.